Leftover Wedding Food Donated to Needy in New Bridal Vendor Program

Typical Indonesian weddings are synonymous with abundance of buffet food offered to hundreds of guests. In many cases, some of the food would end up going to waste as organizers tend to prepare more food than needed to ensure none of the guests are left hungry on the big day.

To make good use of the leftover wedding food, wedding vendor directory Bridestory has come up with a new program called “A Blessing to Share” which allows couples celebrating their special day to not only serve food, but donate it, too.

The program, which is a collaboration between Bridestory and food distributor organization FoodCycle, aims to donate uneaten food from a wedding party to those in need.

“Through ‘A Blessing to Share,’ we encourage brides and grooms to share a little bit of their prosperity on their happy day by donating surplus food,” said Kristi Joviani, the programme’s project leader, in a press release, as quoted by The Straits Times. “Therefore, their special moment can be other people’s happy day too.”

Couples that want to participate in this program need to sign up by filling a registration form and appointing a coordinator who will be in communication with the FoodCycle team regarding the type and amount of leftover food. The food will then be picked upon the team’s request by the program’s delivery partner, Go-Jek’s Go-Send or Go-Box services, who will deliver it to the Food Bank of Indonesia, where the food will be checked, divided into portions and distributed.

According to FoodCycle, the program currently only accepts excess food from couples who hold their wedding on weekends and in Jakarta. Moreover, only halal food will be accepted and distributed.

“Food Cycle realizes that this program is still in its early stages, but we hope it can raise people’s awareness of a huge social gap and (realize that) we all have a responsibility to solve this problem,” said Astrid Paramita, a food technologist from FoodCycle.